On “A Drone With A Lifestyle,” Chicago post-punk outfit Torture Love likens the daily survival grind to life as a drone, mindless and automated, and the perverse, masochistic reflex triggered by cyclical conditioning. You sacrifice 33% of your twenty-four daily hours? Okay, we’ll part ways with this green filth and guess what - you’ll thank us for it. Vocalist Matt Ancrile intones: “The look of love on your face/when money puts you in your place/Existing like a drone/A drone with a lifestyle.” So what separates a drone from a drone with a lifestyle? Is it the illusion of free will? The idea that things will get better? The ability to play guitar?

There’s nothing quite like being in a band to make you feel like Sisyphus. Since music is an intensely personal and often self-flagellating affair, it can be unfairly brutal. Between the time, money, and energy dedicated to its creation, music may prove to be a harsh mistress - the storied splendors of being in a band prove mythically elusive. But still, bands return to the creative process because creation is necessary, because creation purifies, because creation makes the world a little easier to inhabit. Sometimes even drones drop presents.